Live data from Hacker News

USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

arstechnica.com

31–40 of 158 posts

Re: USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

#31
> For reasons that remain hard to understand, the decision was made to retroactively rebrand USB 3.0: 5Gb/s 3.0 connections became "USB 3.1 Gen 1," ...

> USB 3.2 doubles down on this confusion. 5Gb/s devices are now "USB 3.2 Gen 1."

So when they eventually release USB 3.3, my rusty old memory stick will be auto-upgraded to USB 3.3 Gen 1? I like it!

(/s)

Re: USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

#32
post #3

USB 3.X / USB-C / Thunderbolt 3, all of it together is confusing enough for those technical, add marketing speak to the mix and it's just going to end up with a mish mosh of different words that mean absolutely nothing and tell the end user very little. Add to the fact that everyone is skimping on the actual USB 3 standards and a large amount of shitty products on the market that don't do what they say they do (due t…

For real. Why not just call it USB 4.0 and divorce the branding from the technical specification? You can put a thing on the back of the box that says "implements USB specification 3.2.16a-rfc#4619" or whatever.

Re: USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

#33
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at Thunderbolt, where a cheap-ass cable still costs $20, for an idea of how that would turn out.

That's a licensing issue/cost.

Is it? They’re complicated active cables.

Re: USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

#34
post #8

At least WiFi figured out how to improve. Would love to see "USB 4" . No ".0" afterwards, just the simpler numeral. And if you need a bigger connector, then buy the "USB 4 XL connector" cable.

"Would love to see "USB 4" ."

I'd rather go for a (possibly faster) Ethernet with a redesigned smaller connector supporting POE. Smaller devices such as mice and keyboards could talk at PHY level while smarter ones with beefier microcontrollers could employ more and more layers of the network stack so that routing/tunneling data over the network when needed would become trivial. Security wise, there would be no physical difference between an external local disk and a NAS, but software could be used to filter devices from the network. The upside is that there would be a single stack for everything: from storage to security cameras, audio systems, data acquisition gear, sensors and actuators etc. All ports would be electrically insulated, the stack is already open and wonderfully documented, the hardware is already near realtime and there are no royalties to be paid to use that.

Re: USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

#35
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not enumerate it based entirely on features, also toss in what power delivery it's rated at in watts and volts. USB 3 20Gbit PD 100W 20V

What's "3" for?

socket format?

Re: USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

#36
post #20

I really loved USB-C then they screwed it up so badly. Can we have 1 cable that is required to have every exact feature available, no exceptions? Works on any device, supports everything from storage to video transfer (Monitors) and whatever else Apple would add to it.

Look at Thunderbolt, where a cheap-ass cable still costs $20, for an idea of how that would turn out.

And USB-C 10 Gbps cables aren't much cheaper, especially if they do 100W power delivery. Both probably could be cheaper if there were more demand for them, but siren song of cheap slow cables seems to have made it impossible to scale production up.

Re: USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse

#39
Here is a helpful chart of USB versions and their connectors: https://preview.redd.it/s9dun6a1xmpz.png?width=960&crop=smar...

e.g. USB 3.2 has the same connector as USB-C

edit: I personally care far more about the connector than exact specs of each version

Post reply on HN